Friday, October 03, 2014

Fishermen In Utah Asked To Harvest, Eat More Fish

Utah offers some mighty good fishing,
from trout in our mountain lakes and streams to walleye, bass and
catfish in our reservoirs. And, Utah anglers are good sports; most of
us gamely release virtually all of the fish we catch.

Perhaps we release too many fish...

The Utah Wildlife Board has voted to
relax some fishing regulations to encourage anglers to keep more fish
from specific waters. This
article has details. Below are excerpts.

"A chance to
catch a larger fish is the number one thing active Utah anglers have
told us they want," says Drew Cushing, warm water sport
fisheries coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources.
"Unfortunately, at many of the state's waters, anglers are
releasing too many fish. If they'll start keeping fish, up to their
legal limit, the growth rate of the remaining fish should improve."

To encourage
anglers to keep more fish, the Wildlife Board recently approved
several rule changes for the 2015 season. The changes take effect
Jan. 1, 2015.

You can see all of
the changes the board approved in the 2015 Utah Fishing Guidebook.
The free guidebook should be available
online by early November.

Members of the
board hope eliminating the 'home' possession limit—the number of
fish an angler can have in his or her freezer at home—will help
anglers develop a new 'mindset' that encourages them to keep more
fish.

DWR biologists
originally recommended that the possession limit be eliminated for
every fish in Utah except salmonoids—trout, kokanee salmon,
whitefish and grayling. The board, however, eliminated the home
possession limit for every fish species in the state.

The new rules totally remove the limit
on yellow perch at Fish Lake, and increase the brook trout limit on
some lakes on Boulder Mountain.